On the eve of a major release of 2011 census data that's expected to highlight the rapidly growing proportion of seniors in Canada's population, a new national survey on attitudes around aging shows surprisingly less concern among the country's oldest citizens about the inexorable march of time — and higher levels of anxiety among younger Canadians.

The unexpected findings flow from general questions about growing older and a very specific one about the ultimate and unavoidable result of aging: death. And in each case, while Canadians aged 65-plus offered answers amounting to a collective shrug about getting older, the youngest cohort — those 18 to 24 — confessed greater concern.

The survey, released to Postmedia News by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, was commissioned to shed light on the implications for "the Canadian psyche" of the so-called greying of the nation.

"There is much debate about what the demographic shifts will imply for our society's ability to afford health care and pensions," states a summary of the study. "There is less attention directed at what it will mean for our collective state of mind when it comes to aging."

The survey of 1,522 Canadians, conducted in March by the polling firm Leger Marketing, found that 24 per cent of the youngest respondents were "worried" about getting older, compared with only seven per cent of those aged 65-plus.

The "worried" response in other age categories ranged from 12 per cent for the 55-to-64 set to 17 per cent for those aged 35 to 44.

Only the 18-to-24 age group had a majority of respondents — 56 per cent — say they were "worried" or "somewhat worried" about getting older. The lowest combined rate of worry was found among the 65-plus group: 38 per cent.

When it came to concerns about physical health, only 10 per cent of senior citizens said they worried — again, the lowest result among all age groups. Respondents aged 35 to 44 (20 per cent) and 18 to 24 (18 per cent) expressed the most worry about their physical health.

The youngest respondents were most concerned about the state of their mental health, with 20 per cent of the 18-to-24 group describing themselves as "worried" and another 31 per cent saying they were "somewhat worried." Canadians 65 and older were by far the least "worried" (3.5 per cent) and also the least likely to say they were "somewhat worried" (18 per cent).

A similar pattern emerged in response to the question about death. While 51 per cent of the youngest adults said they were worried to some extent about death — the highest rate of concern among all age groups — the second-oldest Canadians (26 per cent) and oldest Canadians (25 per cent) were least likely to say they were worried or somewhat worried.

Asked if the results suggest Canadian seniors may be "whistling past the graveyard" and unwilling to admit their fears about advanced age, ACS executive director Jack Jedwab acknowledged that possibility. But he also said the country's oldest citizens may be genuinely "optimistic about their health" in an era when medical advances and overall fitness levels defy the "worst expectations" of old age.

"It's our perception that older people are more preoccupied by aging, but I think they may also be adjusting to the change," said Jedwab.

Society "may have conditioned them to have worse expectations" and that "improvements in our health conditions" may have, in the 21st century, eased many older Canadians' anxieties about entering the autumn of their lives.

"Those things condition our responses," he said. "But that's not to say (seniors) aren't eventually going to put more pressure on Canada's health and social services."

The survey, which was conducted online via web panels, is considered accurate to within 2.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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